Monthly Archives: November 2012

I can’t believe it was only a month ago that I visited Dubai – life is so busy at the moment that it feels like it was a year ago. I’m going to blog a series of weekly posts on Dubai over the next month but to kick us off, I thought I’d try something different. So here are some of my favourite (unedited) Dubai Instagrams.

The top Instagram was taken in the foyer of Raffles Dubai – lots of gold, lots of Egyptian motifs, lots of heavenly dark red roses.

This was possibly the best creme brûlée of my life – the taste, texture, and mouthfeel was superb. It was the culinary equivalent of sinking into a pile of satin sheets and I ate it in the Emirates lounge at Melbourne Airport. A most unexpected and delightful surprise.

This is the view from the 2nd most expensive suite at the Burj Al Arab, billed as the word’s most luxurious hotel. Yes, that’s right, that’s The World – those man-made islands shaped to resemble the continents of the world. If you want to experience waking up to that view — and it was jaw-dropping — it’ll set you back a cool 60,000 dirhams.

This was the fashion & beauty-themed high tea at Raffles Dubai. How adorable is that shoe? We were each given an extra shoe to take home, too, just like Cinderella in reverse!

I visited the Dubai Mall three times in all, the final time at 11pm at night – it was the beginning of Eid so the mall was open 24 hours/day and it was jumping. Whilst navigating the miles of shops, I stumbled across Ladurée, which had recently opened in Australia (Sydney).

Continue reading →

Sometime last year I came across another Adelaide blog called A Kitchen for Friends, as it’s publisher — one Justin Chai — had written a post in which he said some nice things about this blog.

Later, Justin and his lovely girlfriend, Janice, came along to an Adelaide Food Bloggers Group meet up at the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market. Justin (and Janice) were exactly as they came across in Justin’s blog – friendly, down-to-earth, enthusiastic and passionate about food.

Since that early meeting Justin and Janice have started catering parties and are even doing the canapés for a wedding in December. It started innocently enough — Justin offered to throw a work colleagues’ daughter a 3-course 21st birthday dinner — but then other people started asking them to cater their gatherings and who knows where it will end. It’s all very exciting and I’m thrilled for them.

So when I knew I was going to be having a very busy October/November, I asked Justin if he’d like to do a guest post for The Hungry Australian. It’s a little later than we both expected (sorry Justin!) but I’m delighted to hand him the reins so he can share some memories of his recent trip to Venice and a very interesting pasta dish with us.

Welcome Justin!

PS Scroll to the bottom of the post for a cute photo of Justin and Janice (centre) and friends eating this dish.
PPS You can also head over to Justin’s blog for great step-by-step photographs to illustrate each step of his recipe.

Spaghetti al Nero di Seppia

From traditional eateries nestled within its coastal towns to unassuming trattorias hidden away in the maze of alleyways sprawled out across its bustling cities, almost every food stop we made in Italy left us with déjà vu of other blissful culinary experiences.

The Venetian island of Burano houses more than just its iconic rainbow-coloured buildings and beautiful laces. Populated by a tightly knit community which continues to live of the cornucopia of ocean bounty, it is of no surprise that the locals here treat their seafood with the utmost care and respect.

But one particular Venetian food establishment and the humble creation it birthed from the confines of its age-old kitchen well-deserves a written piece of its own.

The Trattoria da Romano is a perfect example of such a culture. Even Anthony Bourdain himself sings its praises in one of the many travel destinations he covers on his No Reservations television series. Of course we ordered the highly recommended “Go” fish risotto: perfectly cooked rice grains in a milky white broth which seemed to just burst with heavenly flavours of the sea!

But if the risotto was analogous to yin, may I then introduce you to its yang, its black brotha’ from another motha’…

Friends, meet the Spaghetti al Nero di Seppia!

So what exactly is it? Well, do you remember the last time you saw a David Attenborough documentary on sea creatures? Remember seeing a squid doing what looked like an underwater fart – releasing black clouds all over a poor shark which just wanted lunch? That’s right people, we ate all of that black goo…

…And boy was it good! As I licked my fork, spoon, plate, fingers – well, just about anything which came into contact with that rather unflattering yet simply delectable pasta – I looked around the table to my travel companions and knew right away that our thoughts were as coherent as ever.

How could we possibly go back to Australian pasta after eating this?!!!

It was presented in such a simple manner yet it was so rich in flavour! It somewhat frustrated me because I just could not comprehend how they could make it taste so good when there seemed to be so little ingredients on display. But that dish at Burano left me inspired and determined to reproduce what I ate there with Australia’s very own produce. It also taught me that food does not always have to be elaborate to taste good.

So here’s my amateur take on producing simplicity on a plate!

Spaghetti del Nero di Seppi

 

Author: Justin Chai, A Kitchen for Friends

Recipe type: Main

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  30 mins

Total time:  30 mins

Print

Pasta with squid ink - a goth looking pasta with all the flavours of the sea!

Ingredients

• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 red onion
• ½ bunch flat leaf parsley leaves
• 2 bird’s eye chillies
• 400g whole prawns (raw)
• 500g whole squid
• Squid ink (from ink sac)
• EVOO
• 1 cup of dry white wine
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 400g tomato puree
• 500g cooked spaghetti

Instructions

1. Finely dice the garlic cloves, red onion and parsley leaves.
2. De-seed the birds-eye chillies and finely dice them as well
3. De-shell and de-vein the fresh prawns.
4. Place the prawn shells and heads in small pot, fill it with just enough water to cover the shells and bring it to a gentle boil. Once the stock begins to boil, lower the gas and allow it to simmer for 20-30 minutes.
5. Now on to the daunting (and messy!) task of cleaning, prepping – well basically, giving a total make-over to one of the cephalopod family’s many ugly members. We’re going to try keeping the task as clean as possible, but don’t test your luck – you might want to replace that white t-shirt pronto.
6. Start off by pulling the head and tentacles portion off from the body.
7. Now, carefully remove the ink sac in one piece from innards.
8. Bring the sac to the kitchen sink (trust me on this one), gently puncture the sac and empty the ink into a small bowl filled with 20ml of water.
9. Beware of sneaky squirts! Squeeze and squeeze with all your might people, because we will need every drop of that blackish goodness to give our pasta some character!
10. Cut across the head, separating the tentacles as a whole. Discard those horrid looking eyeballs and any innards you may find.
11. Using a sharp knife, slice through the wings and separate them from the body.
12. Slide your finger underneath the purplish skin lining its body and wings, peel it off and discard.
13. Remove backbone from the tube.
14. Using a long spoon, scrape and discard more gooey innards out of the tube.
15. Give all the different squid parts a thorough wash.
16. Slice the tubular body into 1 cm rings, the wings and tentacles in bite-sized pieces and set aside.
17. With all the prep work done, time to bring on the heat!
18. Start off by lining a pan with a few splashes of extra virgin olive oil over low to medium heat.
19. Sauté the combination of finely diced onions and garlic until the onions appear translucent – releasing that inviting aroma we all love.
20. Turn up the gas to medium and deglaze the pan with a cup of dry white wine.
21. Allow things to simmer, eventually reducing the liquid down to ⅓ of the original amount.
22. Now, add approximately 400ml of the prawn stock you made earlier to the pan followed by the finely diced chilies, tomato paste and puree.
23. Next comes the squid pieces and all that sea goodness from its ink!
24. Mix everything around to incorporate.
25. Bring the liquid up to a gentle simmer and then allow it to reduce to a viscous consistency. Patience is key here. You don’t want the sauce to be too runny. Rather, the task here is to rid of at least ⅔ of the sauce’s water content - retaining the essence of flavour in the medium which will coat our pasta. You’ll thank me later.
26. Once the right consistency has been achieved, add in the prawns - being really careful not to overcook them. 1-2 minutes should suffice.
27. Throw in half the chopped up parsley leaves, reserving the rest when you plate up.
28. Season with sea salt and black pepper (although you shouldn’t have to do much of it because the natural seafood flavours from the prawn and squid will be sure to boldly make themselves known to your palate.)
29. Now all that’s left is to mix it all up with your favourite pasta (good ol’ spaghetti will suit it pretty well) and serve it up to your soon to be goth-looking friends!

2.2.8

(c) All photos and text by Justin Chai, A Kitchen for Friends.

Having a Chinese mother is like having your most loyal champion and your fiercest enemy somehow spliced together in an unfortunate science experiment.

She sees you at your best and she sees you at your worst.

For Chinese mothers there are no sense of boundaries, no ‘no-go’ zones where advice is not appropriate or allowed. My mother regularly tells me what she thinks about every aspect of my life and she pulls no punches.

She has extremely high expectations of my brother and I, too, and isn’t afraid to share them. When admonished, she merely says, “I know how much you’re capable of.”

I can’t help but admire that sense of certainty. I’m sure my parents’ unwavering belief in us is partly the reason why I’m never afraid to try new things and why I’m not scared to fail. I accept that making mistakes is an essential part of life; if I’m not making any mistakes I’m probably not trying hard enough.

Continue reading →

I’ve been popping up in all kinds of places lately. Read on for details of Eat Drink Blog 3, a new recipe site, two great recipe e-books, a fab food blogger hop, new client news and recent press clippings.

Eat Drink Blog 3

I’ve been enjoying reading all the lovely, thoughtful and thought-provoking posts about the 3rd Australian Food Bloggers Conference, which concluded Sunday night. The two-day event, which saw 80 food bloggers from nearly every state in Australia visit Adelaide last week, was managed by a volunteer committee of Adelaide food bloggers, who worked countless hours to ensure a successful, bar-raising weekend. So high fives to Amanda, Kirsty, Erin, Alex, Natasha, and Celeste – we did good.

Edit: here’s a pic of us at the beginning of the weekend courtesy of Simon Leong from Simon Food Favourites. Thanks Simon! And can I also say a heartfelt THANK YOU to the genius who invented concealer? You would never guess I was completely loopy-loo from a combination of jet-lag and 4+ hours/sleep a night for the week leading up to the conference.

Thanks must also go to our fantastic sponsors, and most importantly, our major sponsor, the South Australian Tourism Commission, and to Michele D’Aloia, Caitlin Jones and Barbara Storey.

Sadly, I hardly got to chat with any of the delegates properly and missed most of the sessions. Oh well – I’ll just have to read everybody else’s blog posts and look forward to attending next year’s event as a regular delegate!

New recipe site

A few months ago I was commissioned to develop a new recipe site — Amazing Almonds — for the Almond Board of Australia to showcase almonds. We launched last month with some great recipes and articles about almonds, and each month I’ll be adding more recipes — like the Almond & Parmasen Crusted Fish above — interviews and helpful articles.

So if you love almonds, head on over to Amazing Almonds. I’d love to know what you think so any feedback via the site’s comments section would be much appreciated.

New Recipe E-Books

Love recipes? Of course you do if you’re reading this blog!

Two of my recipes have been included in two new e-books that are now available.

Firstly, Ocean Spray commissioned two recipes using their cranberry products for a new e-book featuring Australian food bloggers. I made a Warm Duck Salad (see above) and a crowd-pleasing Berry Trifle – you can download the Ocean Spray recipe e-book free here.

Secondly, a couple of months ago Lauren from Corridor Kitchen asked if I’d like to be involved in an e-book of blogger recipes she was producing called The Potluck Club with all proceeds going to Foodbank, Australia’s largest food relief organisation. We were asked to contribute a low-cost but full flavour recipe and I chose my mother’s Feel Good Fish & Eggplant Curry (see above).

You can download The Potluck Club e-book for $5.95 here and then pat yourself on the back for being both generous and clever in sourcing a great recipe e-book. For more information about the e-book click here.

Cake & Three Veg – this months’ Sweet Adventures blog hop

As regular readers will know, I’m one of the hostesses of Sweet Adventures monthly dessert blog hops. Sadly I had to miss last month’s hop due to a hectic work schedule so I’m doubly pleased to be able to make this hop.

This month, the lovely JJ at 84th & 3rd is hosting Cake & Three Veg, so we’re inviting food bloggers everywhere to post their favourite vegie dessert recipes and join in the fun. The hop opens on Monday 19th November and will remain open for a week for you to link up your post. For more information check out JJ’s post.

New clients & New Projects

This month, apart from my regular gigs with Amazing Almonds, About.com, and Honest Cooking, I’m excited to be working on new projects for the #1 olive oil worldwide, Bertolli (recipe development, food styling and photography), She Knows (recipe development, food styling, photography + writing) and Hardie Grant Publishing (freelance writing).

Thanks to all for the opportunity to work with you. I love the variety of the freelance life!

Press Clippings

I’ve been honoured by some recent press. You may have seen me popping up in Adelaide Matters with some of my fellow Eat Drink Blog committee members, in In Daily with my Grandmother’s prawn sambal recipe or on the ABC website holding a bowl of almonds.

It’s very odd being at the receiving end of a camera for a change – next time I’m calling in hair and makeup!

Christina xx 

PS all photos by moi except the top two taken by the talented KK from ParcStudio

Wow, I had no idea blogging the words ‘going off the grid’ would provoke such a flurry of concerned emails and phone messages.

Thank you to those of you who understood and allowed me some space to breathe.

I’m fine, really. I just needed time to regroup after an exceptionally busy couple of months with new clients and new projects, a trip to Dubai and last weekend’s mammoth 3rd Australian Food Bloggers Conference weekend that I helped to organise.

One thing about being a consultant/freelancer is that you’re never really off-duty. I work odd hours of the day and night, seven days a week. And I actually don’t mind it because I love my work. I’m so incredibly grateful that I have a job that I love that I can do flexibly from home.

Unfortunately, the downside to the consulting/freelance life is that you are constantly in danger of overdoing it and putting yourself last as you say yes to all the opportunities and requests that come your way.

This type of pace is fantastic for short-term growth, but untenable in the long-run. So ‘going off the grid’ was my way of saying ‘Woah. Time out.’

And I’m glad I did it. I played with my kids, pottered around the house, went to bed early, and got a massage.

Similarly, I’m also happy that I’ve started saying ‘no’ to things. Well, actually, I’ve always said no to 95% of the pitches and advertising proposals that landed in my inbox. But now I’ve started saying no to invitations, opportunities and requests I would have said yes to three months ago. Because each request requires time and work on my part and there are only so many hours in the day. So I’m learning to prioritise. This feels good, too.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I’ll be back to my normal blog programming with my next post. I have lots of great recipes, photographs and stories to share with you!

Christina xx

Thanks for all the lovely feedback about Eat Drink Blog 3.

I’m ‘off the grid’ at the moment, taking a break from emails, ‘phone calls and social media. Unless you’re a paying client, natch.

But if you are wondering how Eat Drink Blog 3 went, you can check out this fantastic video by Simon Leong from Simon Food Favourites. Thanks Simon!

Edit:prefer old-school blog posts over video? Click here for the latest EDB3 posts.